EKMH Innovators Interview Series
A new interview series spotlighting global tech influencers, disruptors, visionaries, and of course, innovators.
Xenia von Wedel is a force in the tech communications and PR fields. A respected corporate communications and public relations expert, board member and corporate officer of leading global technology companies with over twenty years experience, von Wedel has provided strategic corporate guidance and governance, as well as successfully created and managed global messaging campaigns for many blockchain companies, Enterprise software and B2B solutions.
Since joining Transform Group, von Wedel has overseen PR campaigns for leading blockchain and fintech clients, including Kraken, Augur, Bancor, Gyft, Lisk, Payment Data Systems, Qtum and ShapeShift, securing media placements in top-tier outlets including The AP, Barron’s, Bloomberg, CNBC, Dow Jones, The Economist, CoinDesk, Financial Times, Forbes, Fortune, Fox News, MSNBC, The New York Times, NPR, Reuters, TechCrunch, USA TODAY and The Wall Street Journal. Focused on thought leadership, content creation and syndication, media outreach and strategy, many can credit von Wedel for knowing the latest updates in Blockchain, Enterprise, B2B solutions, social media and open source software.
Before bitcoin and blockchain, von Wedel focused on AI, enterprise technology, cloud computing and open-source technology. She launched Suse Linux into the U.S. market, leading them to a successful acquisition by Novell ($210 million). Her expertise lies in making high-tech concepts palatable for mainstream audiences.
I’ve had the privilege to work directly with TranformPR Executive VP Xenia von Wedel over the years and recently caught up with her via email to learn more about her insight on several topics, including what opportunities lead to her interesting career path, her take on public relations across multiple industries, Tranform's client pipeline, her token sale experience, sector predictions and career advice. Our interview follows:
EKMH: Earlier in your career you specialized in PR for the Hotel and Wine industries. Please share how your previous experience provided a foundation for your career?
Xenia von Wedel: My career decisions have been fairly mood, emotion, and interest-driven. I started out focusing on mathematics and English literature, but didn’t want to sit at a desk all day. I had this fanciful idea that all beautiful places in the world have hotels and interesting world travelers. That’s how I ended up in the South of France at the Hotel du Palais. In France I discovered my love for wine, and that’s how I started writing for the AOC. When I moved to San Francisco, technology offered the most opportunities. My first client in San Francisco was SuSe Linux when it ran a small three people office out of Oakland. It was a great success story, we worked with them until right before they got acquired by Novel for $210M.
Public Relations is not exactly rocket science, but it demands high levels of flexibility, planning and curiosity. It also requires quick adaptation to new paradigms and concepts. And yes, I am sitting at my desk most days...
EKMH: Why did you decide to make the shift to tech in 1998?
Von Wedel: I had enjoyed all the highlights the Hotel position had to offer, like wining and dining all sorts of international ministers, media stars, directors, you name it, when I worked at the InterContinental Hotels that hosted the Berlinale, the International Film Festival in Berlin. It was a lot of fun. However, as much as I loved working in the hotel and catering business, at some point there was only so much that is new to understand and to promote. The dotcom scene in the 90s was very intriguing. I remember the thrill when I first browsed the internet in ‘93. Compared with today, there was not much happening online, but it was still enticing!
EKMH: What advice do you have for those interested in pursuing tech PR?
Von Wedel: Be curious and read about what’s going on in the industry. Follow journalists that write about topics of interest. Follow the news and how new developments fit into the bigger picture. Go to tech Meetups and check out the innovative startups. Practice summarizing explanations in one sentence using language a 6th grader understands…
EKMH: In what ways has your global and multilingual work experience benefited you?
Von Wedel: Speaking several languages is nice because you can order drinks wherever you go. It simply helps to connect with other folks more easily. But in the end, the technology sector is all about English fluency. Early on, I had to realize that anglicized words in a different language often do not exactly mean what their original context was. That’s when it gets tricky…. But for the most part being able to write proper English is enough, although unfortunately, that’s not a given...we don’t really need to translate documents for public consumption. We usually rewrite it from scratch. Especially when dealing with clients in Asia, they have a very different understanding of what a press announcement should look like.
EKMH: Please tell us about your early experiences in tech PR. How has PR evolved with tech?
Von Wedel: PR was a lot more about having good personal relationships. Going out for drinks, meeting for happy hour and talking about interesting startups was very common. Most of the pitching was done via phone. Nowadays, few journalists publish their phone numbers, let alone answer the phone. I think the stress on journalists is also higher these days. One has to rely on technology in many ways that were not even available 20 years ago. Relationships are still paramount, but how they form and are maintained is completely changed.
EKMH: What do you know now about tech PR that you wish you would have known 1998?
Von Wedel: It is a constantly changing environment, and there is no silver bullet or “one-size-fits-all” solution in this business. There is hardly any word of wisdom today that would have helped me twenty years ago. Each product, client and campaign is different.
EKMH: What difficulties do you continue to address in the industry?
Von Wedel: Just as people gave me googly crazy eyes when I talked about alternative operating systems to Windows such as Linux, mentioned “open source” or even dared to say “in the cloud” 20 years ago, some are just as bewildered by blockchain technology today. In my eyes, blockchain technology is just the next logical development of cloud computing, but it gets just as much disbelief as stories 20 years ago. However, I think the circles and time of acceptance and adoption are getting faster. Today every other person has their pictures in the iCloud or Google pictures. Enterprise is taking it slower, but soon every consumer will have a secure, decentralized wallet and every business will have a blockchain component in their IT set up.
EKMH: How have you addressed shifts to podcasts, new social networking apps and sites, YouTube, newsletters and blogs?
Von Wedel: There is not really a huge shift, it’s just different outlets. For every quality tech magazine that dies, you have 50 other channels pop up. Poorly edited YouTube interviews can be much less forgiving if the founder or entrepreneur is hard to understand. Many of the more niche publications have really interesting questions and story angles, but they don’t have the mass appeal that a company needs to reach critical mass of targeted audiences, potential investors, buyers or users that they need.
EKMH: What advice do have for those platforms and companies trying to initiate their own PR?
Von Wedel: Again, PR is not rocket science, but it is very time intensive and requires a multitude of different talents. Surprisingly, good writing is hard to find, and pitching ideas is not everyone’s ‘thing’ either. Be able to work a database, read a lot, and connect with many different people. Time management is getting more and more important. It can be very stressful to have clients breathe down your neck while journalists chew you out. You have to kiss a lot of frogs until you find a prince. The importance of organization, timing and persistence cannot be overstated. Using clear, simple, precise language to convey complex concepts doesn’t hurt either. Distilling a company’s technology or product into an easily understandable sentence is not trivial.
EKMH: What sets TransformPR apart from its peers?
Von Wedel: Transform has been hyper-specialized in the blockchain space from the beginning. If a PR campaign seeks to gain a high level of visibility in the cryptocurrency / blockchain and mainstream press globally, they need the right partner. Lately, many PR agencies have suddenly jumped on the blockchain wagon, claiming to be experts. However, Transform is the only mainstream business and consumer in PR with deep roots and strong connections in the blockchain industry. In fact, we are a ‘blockchain only’ agency and have represented more than 200 companies, organizations and projects in the blockchain sector since 2013.
We do not just talk the talk, but walk the walk. Many clients pay us in part or in full with their tokens, meaning we have vested interest in the client success. That’s also the reason we turn down many companies who ask for PR services. Media on the other hand appreciates our selectiveness and knows we know our market.
Transform successfully worked with more than 100 token crowdsales (ICOs). Success stories include Aeternity, Airbitz, Augur, Bancor, Bittrex, Counterparty, Dash, Decentral/Jaxx, Ethereum, Factom, GameCredits, Golem Network, Gnosis, Gyft, Incent, Kraken, Lisk, Mastercoin/Omni, MaidSafe, Qtum, Rivetz, SALT Lending, ShapeShift, Storj, Syscoin, Swarm, Unikoin Gold, VideoCoin and WAX Toke. We placed stories in prominent mainstream and investor media like AP, Barron’s, BBC, Bloomberg, CNBC, Dow Jones, Economist, CoinDesk, Financial Times, Forbes, Fortune, Fox News, MSNBC, New York Times, NPR, Reuters, TechCrunch, USA Today, Wall Street Journal and many others. We set them up for the best start possible.
EKMH: As an industry innovator, who else do you consider to be industry standouts? Why?
Von Wedel: I have squirms to tout myself an innovator when all I do is adapt quickly. In fact, despite the change of platforms, topics, and new ways to reach audiences, it still all comes down to telling a good story. In high tech specifically, it’s about making high-tech concepts palatable for mainstream audiences. It needs to make sense.
EKMH: How has PR become essential to global tech?
Von Wedel: Nobody believes in advertising, and unless you want to spread clickbait on social media, a serious publication is worth something. Despite widespread attempts to discredit journalism as fake news, key publications are still fact checking and working hard to earn and keep readers’ trust. Especially in the crypto space, it is interesting to see how some new publications are really promoting pump and dump schemes. But quality will prevail in the long run. The question is just if a publication or channel has the finances to be there for the long haul. Media outlets that are able to monetize will continue to rely on PR professionals to connect them with entrepreneurs who are creating the next wave of technologies. But regardless, most tech entrepreneurs are not born storytellers and often need help to position the benefits of their product in the right context.
EKMH: How do you foresee PR to be disrupted and innovated in the near future? In the next two years?
Von Wedel: Most media coverage and social media tracking is automated. Fortunately PR interns don't have to spend hours clipping articles anymore. Some parts of outreach can be automated and will improve with backend database, but as long as we are dealing with human writers, the PR pro will be a human. You can deploy artificial intelligence for customer support, but not for a media inquiry. A lot is still based on relationships, even if these relationships are built via digital contact only. A “one-pitch-fits-all” to “spray and pray” is not the right approach, especially not while publications are increasingly specialized. For example, I have yet to find a CRM system that really works for media relations.
EKMH: Tell us about your client pipeline and university contacts. Which tech innovations and new platforms should readers have on their radars?
Von Wedel: Right now we are working with several exciting companies. Just to name a few: Presearch is a decentralized search engine that rewards users in PRE tokens for every search and it does not track your searches. QBIX is an open-source platform that lets people create their own community networks. Think of the combined functionalities of a Facebook, Meetup, Zoom and Calendaring on a decentralized and secure platform, that everyone can download as a mobile app. Andrew Yang has a community app for the 2020 presidential campaign.
Monarch is more than a decentralized wallet, but a whole suite of crypto services that supports more than 1900 tokens and has over 270,000 users.
CPUcoin is a sharing economy for CPU/GPU power that is set to launch an Initial Exchange Offering. Polymath is paving the way for security token adoption. They are all worth checking out!
EKMH: How do you source new clients? What responsibility do PR firms have in the age of crypto, blockchain, AI and fintech?
Von Wedel: At Transform we have several avenues to get new business. Obviously, Transform founder Michael Terpin is a trailblazer, serial entrepreneur and pioneering cryptocurrency investor. He travels the world to speak at all the major blockchain conferences and knows everyone in the space. He also co-founded BitAngels, the world’s first angel network for digital currency startups. He knows every investor in this space and they refer us to business. We work with serial entrepreneurs who come back with their latest endeavors or who advise startups and introduce them to us.
The BitAngels investor network for the blockchain industry launches new chapters across the globe. Startups interested in presenting at a BitAngels event can apply by emailing their company information and pitch deck to us. We pick the best, most innovative or most exciting ones.
EKMH: In your free time, do you opt for podcasts or books? What’s on your to-read/to-listen list? Which shouldn’t be missed?
Von Wedel: Not really, in my free time I unhook from digital devices, and I indulge in walking the dog, yoga, skiing. I just started reading The Birth of Korean Cool. In the car I listen to NPR, and I like to read The Economist. It is hard enough to keep up with what’s going on in the world and it’s important not to be too isolated in a blockchain bubble. Still, I am often surprised that most mainstream outlets have still problems in wrapping their head about blockchain. The gap of the digital divide is pretty big.
EKMH: Many thanks for sharing your time and insight!
Von Wedel: Thank you for the opportunity!
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